Page 113 of Ondine: Vol. 2

He stands at the bottom of a cement staircase. I can only see the stairs behind him. No signs of Jake, Freddie, or Arnie.

“Alpha,” Boone says with a softness that makes me want to hurl. Sebastian enters all on his own and Boone locks the door behind him.

“She doesn’t look well,” Sebastian points out as he wanders around the small space. A couple of couches. Table. Kitchenette.

“Well, no, she wouldn’t be. But I was just about to give her a bath and clean her up a bit.”

Oh great, let’s talk about me like I’m not here.

“What’s happening here, Boone? Why did you take her?”

“She’s mine,” he answers so simply it leaves no room for argument.

I can feel my heart beating and it’s actually doing something now. Supplying my body with all sorts of energetic chemicals. My eyes clear. My hands are no longer weighty and difficult to maneuver. My legs are bouncy.

The uppers.

“You took her from me.”

“I took her from those alphas who don’t deserve her. Freddie, Jake, and Shadow. I’d never take her from you.”

I notice he doesn’t even mention Arnie.

“And yet you tell me I can’t stay. Let me help you. I’m in this with you. Whatever you’re doing.” Lie. His scent even changes.

It pisses Boone off.

I let out a strangled noise as he tosses me onto a nearby couch and goes after Sebastian.

I switch. Like a monster coming out of my body to replace the old human Ondine. Boone’s hand latches onto Sebastian’s throat. And it’s all I need.

35

Bite

Ondine

Get away from him!The omega in me screams either in my head or out loud. I don’t even know. She hurls herself onto Boone’s back. Her nails dig into his throat. Her teeth clamp onto his ear. Her legs squeeze his chest, hoping to squeeze the life out of him.

He roars and tries to throw us to the ground. But she’s not giving up. She feels no pain. She slices him wherever her hands find purchase. She won’t let go of his ear, biting harder and harder through the tough cartilage.

Shadow, newly awakened, busts through the bedroom door. My two alphas try to pull me off of Boone but I am not in control.

She wants to see him bloody and swollen in a heap on the floor. His ear is detached now and in my mouth. He’s wrestled us down on the ground and then up against the wall—smashing myback over and over again into the chair rail. I turn my head and spit his ear out and then whip my head, searching for his other ear.

Sebastian gets the door open and calls to Jake. The omega (not in me, she’s definitely out of me now) howls. She is calling to all her alphas and her beta.

Freddie is the one to reach her first.

“Sleep!“ He alpha barks at Boone, who loses all structure. But before I can fall with him, Freddie grabs me.

She’s hissing and seething and still hunting for more blood.

Our bond, itchy and damaged, still sings at our closeness. It only fuels her chaos.

She kicks at Boone’s lifeless body until Freddie separates us far enough away she can’t get to him.

“So beautiful,” he says in my ear. “Such perfection. I knew you were there the whole time.” He’s pulling us closer and closer.